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Online Backup for WordPress is Like Hugging a Giraffe

You might have read the title of this article and asked yourself what an online backup for WordPress had to do with hugging a giraffe, and we don’t blame you. While it is a strange concept, it’s actually pretty accurate.

We’ll do a little more explaining towards the end of the article, but for now let’s talk about online backups and how they benefit you and your website.

Discovering Backups

A website backup is a major part in owning and creating a website. When first starting out on your website you may have come across the term a few times. Or you might have seen it while shopping around for web hosts. Either way, the idea is the same.

A backup is the process of saving your website’s files periodically and storing them on a secure server. This can be done by you or your web host depending on a few factors.

Some of these factors include cost, whether you want double the backups, how often you update your site, and the list continues. Either way you should always have a plan for backing up your website.

Utilizing Backups

There are a few options when choosing on how to backup your website.

Manual backups are an option that is slightly outdated, but still has its place. In order to manually backup your website you will need to access your cPanel. Once you do this, you will choose which files to backup and download them to an external hard drive or your computer. The backup is then complete.

A plugin is another option that has gained traction with the growing use of WordPress. Basically a plugin allows you to do a manual backup, without the manual part. You can choose between different types of backups and even schedule backups as you wish. This is one of the easiest options available and there are a lot of different choices when it comes to plugins.

The most popular option is an online backup. An online backup for WordPress is just the same as the other two choices, but you don’t have to think about the backup itself. Instead, the backup is run at set times and stores the data on a secure or off-site server.

This option is the most popular because it is what happens when your web host does the backup for you. Most hosts offer website backups and it is definitely something you should look for when choosing a host.

So how is an online backup like hugging a giraffe?

You see, when you hug a giraffe you really only get to hug the legs. But, there is so much more that you can’t reach! The rest of the body, the long neck, the funny little sticks at the top of its head. All of these are part of the giraffe, but you can’t quite reach it. Unless you get a big ladder or something of the sort.

This is the same as an online backup for WordPress. While you can see that the backup is happening or has already occurred, you can’t quite reach the main part of the backup. The server, the process, the actual copies of your website are just out of your reach. However, not being able to see the backup isn’t all that bad. Looking at files is quite boring and is nowhere near as cool as a giraffe so, no loss there.

When deciding on a backup provided by your web host you’ll want to ensure that it meets your criteria. We at InMotion Hosting think that our backups are top notch and would be glad to show you what we mean. Take a look at our hosting plans and see how backups are a part of what we do.